Dear Brother and Sister in Christ,
Throughout this whole journey it has been amazing to see God's timing and God's power. There have been many mountains that have had to be moved. Since I've started to prayfully consider joining God and his activity, I would continuously ask the questions "But what about this? or that?" I was trying to see things through my eyes, I was trying to solve problems with my power. Let's just say that not much was happening. It wasn't until I let go of everything that I really started to see the mountains move. "May the Mountains Be Moved" has been my theme throughout this whole time. There have been many mountains that could have prevented me from saying yes, and sometimes saying yes, is the scariest thing to do, especially when all can see are the mountains. But we serve a God, who not only can move them, but he CREATED them. And He will never leave us to climb them alone.
So throughout this post and throughout this blog and this upcoming year and a half, please don't look at me and say "WOW, look at what she is doing!" or "WOW, she is so brave" At the end of every day I want to make sure that everyone knows God's POWER and see God's movement. I don't even want to attempt to share in God's glory. I want my actions to always point to Him. I pray that He will be so big in what he does through me, that nobody can miss him. That is ultimately my prayer. So as I go through the mountains that God has graciously moved since I've said yes to Him in January. It really is an account of His faithfulness! I pray that you too may see His faithfulness through this as well.
Mountain 1: Preparing my heart:
Isaiah 6:8 says "Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, 'Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?' And I said 'Here I am. Send me." Let me tell you, those can be extremely scary words to say. When I started praying those words back in October, I had NO idea that God would be calling me Tanzania. It was no where on my radar or even in my plans. I was content with monthly trips in the summer, that was enough for me. But God's plans are so much greater then ours! One of the things that I love about this verse is the faith that Isaiah had. He didn't try to come up with a million reasons why he couldn't or shouldn't do it. In fact he didn't even know what it was at that moment. He just knew that God needed someone to join in and he said yes. His natural response without hesitation was "I am here, send me!" Oh to have that faith to automatically say yes. To take that step out of the boat, even when everyone thought it was crazy. Isaiah didn't even worry about the mountains that were looming over him. To him, they were not even a factor. Oh may we have that faith! Lord, I pray that you will put that faith in each of our lives!
Mountain 2: Raising Support:
Because this is volunteer position, I have to come up with all of my own support. Like almost every human being, I HATE asking other people for money. I cringed at the fact that I had to send out support letters asking for the money for me to go to Tanzania. But it has been truly been amazing to see the many people that have offered to join me in both prayer and financial support! God is bigger then money, and He will provide the way for this to happen as well. At this point I'm not 100% funded yet, I'm close, but I have no doubt in my mind that God will provide for the last of the support to come. One of the ways that I've been raising support is by creating a cookbook. Which brings me to my third mountain.
Mountain 3: Cookbook
The Mountain Be Moved Cookbook, was originally an idea from a very dear friend of mind. I think that when she mentioned in home group, she had no idea what she really started. Before I even said yes to Village School International, I had another dear friend say that she wanted to do the cookbook project for me. Oh my goodness, let me tell you, I don't think we ever imagined it to turn out as awesome as it did. IT just goes to show that with God behind something, he will blow our expectations out of the water! I originally thought that I was just going to hand make some on my own and sell like 10 with maybe 25 recipes in them. I really think that God was laughing when I set that low of an expectation. My friend who said that they wanted to take it over, found an amazing program online and set it all up. She was the one who came up with the name of the project. We put it online, and I started to verbally tell friends and family to start putting in recipes. I was hoping for 75, once again, God was laughing. Once we reached 75, I thought 150. Once we passed 150, I finally just said "Okay God, just show off!" and show off He did. The final cookbook has 487 recipes from friends and family all over the world! How amazing. (If your interested please visit my sister's blog at Rusty Hinge- http://networkedblogs.com/KOq73)
The amount of support that I've received these past couple months has been overwhelming. From prayer and financial support. In the moments when I think that I made a mistake or that I'm crazy, God will send another person to give me the support that I need to make it through that attack. So thank you for everything!!! I truly would not be able to go through this without it.
Ps. 62:11-12a says "One thing God has spoken, two things have I heard: that you, O God, are strong, and that you, O Lord are loving." I'm not going to say that when I think about everything that has to work in order for this to happen I don't get nervous and overwhelmed. But I then remember this verse and that God is strong then any mountain that stands in the way or any arrow that the enemy will throw my way. Because Satan will try his hardest to thwart any movement of God's children joining in with Him in his activity. God knows that I am created from the dust and yet he still choose to use me! I do not have to fear because I know that God is going before m. All the work that gets done will only get done through Christ. I am the vessel that our All-Powerful and Amazing God will be using to do some awesome things.
In Christ,
Alexandra Dodde
Throughout this whole journey it has been amazing to see God's timing and God's power. There have been many mountains that have had to be moved. Since I've started to prayfully consider joining God and his activity, I would continuously ask the questions "But what about this? or that?" I was trying to see things through my eyes, I was trying to solve problems with my power. Let's just say that not much was happening. It wasn't until I let go of everything that I really started to see the mountains move. "May the Mountains Be Moved" has been my theme throughout this whole time. There have been many mountains that could have prevented me from saying yes, and sometimes saying yes, is the scariest thing to do, especially when all can see are the mountains. But we serve a God, who not only can move them, but he CREATED them. And He will never leave us to climb them alone.
So throughout this post and throughout this blog and this upcoming year and a half, please don't look at me and say "WOW, look at what she is doing!" or "WOW, she is so brave" At the end of every day I want to make sure that everyone knows God's POWER and see God's movement. I don't even want to attempt to share in God's glory. I want my actions to always point to Him. I pray that He will be so big in what he does through me, that nobody can miss him. That is ultimately my prayer. So as I go through the mountains that God has graciously moved since I've said yes to Him in January. It really is an account of His faithfulness! I pray that you too may see His faithfulness through this as well.
Mountain 1: Preparing my heart:
Isaiah 6:8 says "Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, 'Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?' And I said 'Here I am. Send me." Let me tell you, those can be extremely scary words to say. When I started praying those words back in October, I had NO idea that God would be calling me Tanzania. It was no where on my radar or even in my plans. I was content with monthly trips in the summer, that was enough for me. But God's plans are so much greater then ours! One of the things that I love about this verse is the faith that Isaiah had. He didn't try to come up with a million reasons why he couldn't or shouldn't do it. In fact he didn't even know what it was at that moment. He just knew that God needed someone to join in and he said yes. His natural response without hesitation was "I am here, send me!" Oh to have that faith to automatically say yes. To take that step out of the boat, even when everyone thought it was crazy. Isaiah didn't even worry about the mountains that were looming over him. To him, they were not even a factor. Oh may we have that faith! Lord, I pray that you will put that faith in each of our lives!
Mountain 2: Raising Support:
Because this is volunteer position, I have to come up with all of my own support. Like almost every human being, I HATE asking other people for money. I cringed at the fact that I had to send out support letters asking for the money for me to go to Tanzania. But it has been truly been amazing to see the many people that have offered to join me in both prayer and financial support! God is bigger then money, and He will provide the way for this to happen as well. At this point I'm not 100% funded yet, I'm close, but I have no doubt in my mind that God will provide for the last of the support to come. One of the ways that I've been raising support is by creating a cookbook. Which brings me to my third mountain.
Mountain 3: Cookbook
The Mountain Be Moved Cookbook, was originally an idea from a very dear friend of mind. I think that when she mentioned in home group, she had no idea what she really started. Before I even said yes to Village School International, I had another dear friend say that she wanted to do the cookbook project for me. Oh my goodness, let me tell you, I don't think we ever imagined it to turn out as awesome as it did. IT just goes to show that with God behind something, he will blow our expectations out of the water! I originally thought that I was just going to hand make some on my own and sell like 10 with maybe 25 recipes in them. I really think that God was laughing when I set that low of an expectation. My friend who said that they wanted to take it over, found an amazing program online and set it all up. She was the one who came up with the name of the project. We put it online, and I started to verbally tell friends and family to start putting in recipes. I was hoping for 75, once again, God was laughing. Once we reached 75, I thought 150. Once we passed 150, I finally just said "Okay God, just show off!" and show off He did. The final cookbook has 487 recipes from friends and family all over the world! How amazing. (If your interested please visit my sister's blog at Rusty Hinge- http://networkedblogs.com/KOq73)
The amount of support that I've received these past couple months has been overwhelming. From prayer and financial support. In the moments when I think that I made a mistake or that I'm crazy, God will send another person to give me the support that I need to make it through that attack. So thank you for everything!!! I truly would not be able to go through this without it.
Ps. 62:11-12a says "One thing God has spoken, two things have I heard: that you, O God, are strong, and that you, O Lord are loving." I'm not going to say that when I think about everything that has to work in order for this to happen I don't get nervous and overwhelmed. But I then remember this verse and that God is strong then any mountain that stands in the way or any arrow that the enemy will throw my way. Because Satan will try his hardest to thwart any movement of God's children joining in with Him in his activity. God knows that I am created from the dust and yet he still choose to use me! I do not have to fear because I know that God is going before m. All the work that gets done will only get done through Christ. I am the vessel that our All-Powerful and Amazing God will be using to do some awesome things.
In Christ,
Alexandra Dodde
Thanks for sharing! I'm glad to be on board to see the exciting things God has planned for your life
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